American BPO firm consolidates India operations for expansion

Bangalore, Dec 15 (IANS) Unfazed by the impact of global meltdown on the IT industry, the US-based business process outsourcing (BPO) major Sitel has consolidated its India operations for future expansion, a company official said Monday.”We have integrated the Bangalore operations with our Indian subsidiary after acquiring the equity stake of ITC Infotech in the joint venture that was formed with ClientLogic Corporation, with which our parent firm merged in 2007,” Sitel India chief executive Safir Adeni told reporters here.

Sitel India, however, did not disclose the value of acquiring ITC Infotech’s stake, including the premium paid.

Sitel Inc. provides BPO services from on-shore, near-shore and offshore locations to about 450 clients in 32 languages across 27 countries the world over through 66,000 employees, including over 6,000 in the Indian sub-continent.

“The capital crunch and cost pressures due to the financial crisis will force enterprises to outsource more of their back office operations to vendors like Sitel for cost arbitrage and access to talent pool. In spite of lower IT budgets, we are upbeat on surviving the crisis and sustaining growth,” Adeni asserted.

To increase the revenue share of India operations from four-five percent currently, the company plans to expand its offerings to transaction-based and analytical based services.

“Going forward, we will move up the value chain to offer KPO (knowledge process outsourcing) and other IT-enabled services to clients in India and abroad across verticals. Like others, we too are on wait and watch mode over the next two quarters, as enterprises are postponing fresh investments and holding back expansion plans,” Adeni observed.

Though Sitel India grew more in the first two quarters of this year (2008) than in the corresponding period last year, the slump in the third and fourth quarters will flatten the company’s overall growth over the previous year (2007).

“India operations will continue to be part of Sitel’s growth strategy, as evident from its consistent delivery and quality services with higher return on investment to clients. To enhance our value proposition to our global clients, we will move up the value chain in offerings,” Adeni affirmed.